Nephew brings cartoons into morning routine

I've developed a new morning routine over the past few days that I'm really starting to enjoy.

I wake up every morning a couple hours before I have to leave, take about an hour or so to get myself ready, then spend the rest of my morning eating breakfast and watching cartoons with my nephew, who stops at our house before school because his mother has to get to work early.

Our show of choice at the moment is Cartoon Network's "Adventure Time," which we both love for its mix of fantasy/sci-fi with pure cartoon weirdness.

We just started doing it this week, and we're trying to watch as much as we can of the show through Netflix or saved episodes on my DVR.

So far, my 8-year-old nephew, Deacon, and I are really enjoying our daily journeys to the show's fictional Land of Ooo with the show's two protagonists -- Finn (a human boy) and Jake (his magical dog).

If you haven't watched the show, you're really missing out. Ostensibly a children's show, the cartoon has established over the past four or so years one of the richest, most fleshed-out and intricate back stories on television now and possibly ever.

The show's creative team, led by creator Pendleton Ward, has also made an interesting decision to have Finn age as the shows progress. The character started the series as a 12-year-old, and is now 14 years old in the world of the show.

We're still working our way through the early episodes of the show, which is now on its fifth season. On the morning of the day I sit down to write this, Deacon and I started the day watching a pair of episodes from the first season in which Finn and Jake get magical powers that control things like dust and mayonnaise, then are evicted from their treehouse by a 1,000-year-old vampire named Marceline, who becomes their friend in later episodes.

But beyond the show being fantastically fun to watch, I've realized our new routine is a pretty great way to start your day.

Sitting around eating a bowl of cereal while watching cartoons in the living room feels more than a little like waking up as a child on a Saturday morning. The biggest difference being I can't just roll out of bed in my pajamas, and I actually have somewhere to be instead of the seemingly endless amount of free time that a weekend day represents to a child.

But I think next time I go grocery shopping, I'll pick up some Lucky Charms to make the experience just a little bit more authentic.